Car watch



May 15, 1956 FRlEDLl 2,745,244

CAR WATCH Filed April 20, 1954 @ERARD FR/DL/ United States Patent O CAR WATCH Grard Friedli, St. Blaise, Switzerland, assignor to Fabrique dHorlogerie de St. Blaise S. A., St. Blaise, Switzerland Application April 20, 1954, Serial No. 424,451

Claims priority, application Switzerland February 16, 1954 3 Claims. (Cl. 58-88) This invention relates to car watches.

Several constructions of this type are already known in the art. In most of them a lodging for the watch is provided either in the instrument-board or in the steering wheel of the car. Such lodgings must obviously be planned by the designer of the car, who provides consequently all his cars of standard model with the same type of watch, thus leaving no choice to the buyer of the car, regarding the watch.

Serious troubles, however, may arise, when the car owner must incidentally let his car watch be repaired, because he has then often to walk many times from the motor mechanics to the watch makers with his watch, for disassembling it from the car, repairing it and mounting it again into the car.

It is therefore an obect of the invention to enable each car owner to adapt himself easily a watch of his choice in his car, without modifying thereby the car or its parts in any manner.

The car watch according to the invention is tixed to the switch-key of the car by means of a universal joint, sol that the watch may be orientated at will with respect to its support.

In the drawings accompanying this specification one embodiment of the invention is represented by way of example.

In the drawings:

Figs. l and 2 are plan views of the watch fixed to the switch-key in two different positions relative to the key,

Fig. 3 is a diametrical section of Fig. 2, to a greater scale, and

Fig. 4 is a plan view of the bottom of the watch disassembled from the key.

Referring to the drawings in which like numerals designate like parts, and first to Figs. 3 and 4, the movement 1 of the watch is located in a case comprising a combined bezel and caseband 2 and a bottom 3, preferably of steel. A pin 4 pressed into an opening 5 of bottom 3 is engaged in an opening 6 of caseband 2 in order to secure the angular position of bottom 3 relative to caseband 2. Several further openings 6 are provided at the periphery of caseband 2. Pin 4 of bottom 3 may be engaged into any opening 6, thereby allowing the bottom to be orientated in several well determined angular positions with respect to caseband 2.

Bottom 3 is held in place within caseband 2 by means of a threaded ling 7, engaged in a tapped part 8 of caseband 2. Ring 7 surrounds bottom 3 and thrusts a rim 9 thereof against a shoulder 10 of caseband 2.

The bottom could also be that of a watertight case, a tight joint, for instance a ring of synthetic rubber, thereby being interposed between rim 9 and shoulder 10 in a well known manner,

A cavity 11 is provided in the surface of bottom 3 turned towards the exterior of the watch, and an annular fiat spring 12 is fixed to this bottom by means of three rivets 13. Instead of riveting spring 12 to bottom 3, this spring could also be removably fixed by screws to the watchcase bottom. Spring 12 is open and its two free ends 14 are bent in a direction almost perpendicular to bottom 3, in order to form together with cavity 11 a socket in which a spherical head 15 integral with a piece 16 may be located. The ends 14 of spring 12 are bent in such a manner as to hold head 15 with so strong a friction within said socket, that the piece 16, once orientated with respect to the socket, remains in its4 position because of said friction, in spite of the weight of the watch and the jarrings of piece 16, the watch thus being suspended only by means of the socket-joint described.' u

Spring 12 and in particular rivets 13 are masked by an annular cover 17 opened at 18 and kept with snap tit in ring 7. The latter is provided with two diametrically opposite notches 19, in order to allow screwing or unscrewing this ring by means of an appropriate key or a screw-driver.

A switch-key 20 of a motor car is engaged around a tubular projection 21 of piece 16 and kept in place by means of a screw 22 and a washer 23.

Before introducing the switch-key into the instrument board of the car the watch is orientated with repsect to this key as shown in Fig. 1. Once the key has been set in place and whatever its angular position may be, the socket-joint described aways allows orientating the watch at will, in particular so that its dial will be turned towards the driver of the car.

Because of the friction of head 15 within its socket, the watch will always remain in the same position with respect to the switch-key, in spite of the jarrings of the car, unless it is orientated otherwise by force.

When the switch-key is not engaged in the instrumentboard of the car, it may be folded behind the watch into the position represented in Fig. 2, in order to reduce the extension, which is thus not much greater than that of the key itself, since the Watch covers the circular part 24 of the key.

Occasional displacements of the watch with respect to the switch-key do not endanger unscrewing of bottom 3, because of pin 4. Furthermore, openings 6 enable orientating bottom 3 initially and definitely so that the division twelve of the watch dial is almost in its upmost position, when the position of the watch relative to the key is that shown in Fig. l.

lt will be observed that instead of the socket-joint described any other universal joint could also be used, provided that this joint be entirely fixed to the watch without requiring any change of the switch-key of the car.

A great aesthetic advantage of the construction described is also seen in the fact that the whole mechanism, which allows fixing the watch to the switch-key, is folded and hidden behind the watch when the latter has once been satisfactorily orientated in front of the instrument board.

It is to be understood that the form of my invention, herewith shown and described, is to be taken as a preferred example of the same, and that various changes in the shape, size and arrangement of parts may be resorted to, without departing from the spirit of my invention, or the scope of the subjoined claims.

I claim:

l. In combination a watch, a at annular opened spring fixed on to the watchcase bottom, and having its two free ends extending in a direction transversely to the watchcase bottom, a socket on the watchcase, formed by a cavity in the watchcase bottom and by said free ends of the spring, and a piece integral with a spherical head held with strong friction within said socket, said piece being adapted to be screwed on to a motor car switch-key.

2. A timepiece comprising, in combination, a casing having a rear wall formed at its outer surface with a laspherical member located in said depression and between and in engagement with said plate portions so that the latter urge said spherical member into said depression and form therewith the equivalent of a ball and socket joint; and connecting means fixed to and extending from said spherical member for connecting the latter and jthe timepiece carried thereby to a desired object.

-3. Aftimepiece comprising, in combination, a casing having a rear wall; resilient socket means located at the outer surface of said rear Wall and formed in part by said rear-wall; a spherical member located within and 4 Y resiliently gripped by said socket means to form therewith a universal joint for supporting the timepiece; and connecting means xed to and extending from said spherical member for connecting the latter and the timepiece carried thereby to a desired object.

References Cited in the tile of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,884,756 Hodny Oct. 25, 1932 2,209,691 Fraser July 30, 1940 2,268,032 Hickey Dec. 30, 1941 2,413,337 Segal Dec. 31, 1946 FOREIGN PATENTS 395,937 Great Britain July 27, 1933 

